EQUILIBRIUM STATE ANALYZING APPARATUS, EQUILIBRIUM STATE ANALYSIS METHOD, PROGRAM AND RECORDING MEDIUM

• US 20050021312A1
• Filed: 08/08/2003
• Published: 01/27/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Tanaka, Shinji, Inoue, Shigeyuki, Nagamitsu, Sachio, Kawasaki, Yoshitaka, Yamamoto, Hirosi
• Granted Patent: US 7,031,872 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/189
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/103 Detecting, measuring or recording devices for testing the shape, pattern, colour, size or movement of the body or parts thereof, for diagnostic purposes A61B5/08 takes precedence; measuring aids for tailors A41H1/00; measuring instruments specially adapted for dentistry A61C19/04
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1116 Determining posture transitions
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4023 Evaluating sense of balance
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6823 Trunk, e.g., chest, back, abdomen, hip
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6831 Straps, bands or harnesses
• CPC Class Codes: A61H 3/061 with electronic detecting or guiding means
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/50 Wireless data transmission, e.g. by radio transmitters or telemetry

Abstract

An equilibrium state analyzing apparatus, equilibrium state analysis method, program thereof and recording medium are provided that place few constraints on the degree of freedom in the area of motion or posture of the examinee. An equilibrium state analyzing apparatus includes acceleration information detector, attached to the trunk of the human body, of detecting accelerations generated in at least one direction within the horizontal plane, motion information storing device of storing the detected accelerations, and equilibrium state analyzer of analyzing the equilibrium state of the human body using the stored acceleration information.

Claims

1. An equilibrium state analyzing apparatus comprising:

acceleration information detecting means, attached to the trunk of the human body, of detecting accelerations generated in at least one direction within the horizontal plane;

motion information storing means of storing said detected accelerations; and

equilibrium state analyzing means of analyzing the equilibrium state of the human body by integrating said stored acceleration information.

2. The equilibrium state analyzing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said acceleration information detecting means can detect accelerations generated in the x- and y-directions which cross each other at right angles within the horizontal plane, and

said equilibrium state analyzing means calculates and outputs velocities by integrating acceleration generated in said x-direction and acceleration generated in said y-direction, respectively.

3. The equilibrium state analyzing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said velocity (Vt) is determined from the expression:

$\begin{array}{c}{V}_t=\sqrt{{\left({\int <br><br>}_{t-1}^t<br><br>\mathrm{Axt}<br><br>\text{\hspace{1em}<br><br>}<br><br>d<br><br>t\right)}^2+{\left({\int <br><br>}_{t-1}^t<br><br>\mathrm{Ayt}<br><br>\text{\hspace{1em}<br><br>}<br><br>d<br><br>t\right)}^2}\\ \begin{array}{ccc}\stackrel{\_}{V}=\mathrm{Average}<br><br>\text{\hspace{1em}<br><br>}<br><br>\left(\mathrm{Vt}\right)& \text{\hspace{1em}<br><br>}& \left(t=0,1,2,\mathrm{\dots <br><br>}<br><br>\text{\hspace{1em}<br><br>}<br><br>T\right)\end{array}\end{array}$

where Axt is the acceleration in said x-direction, Ayt is the acceleration in said y-direction (t is a sampling timing, t=0, 1, 2 . . . P/I, P is a measuring time and I is a sampling interval) and said equilibrium state analyzing means calculates and outputs an average velocity over the measuring time P from said calculated velocity (Vt).

4. The equilibrium state analyzing apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a display device of displaying said output data,

wherein said motion information storing means stores said calculated average velocity and said measured date data, and

said equilibrium state analyzing means displays said calculated average velocity corresponding to said date data stored in said motion information storing means on said display device over time.

5. The equilibrium state analyzing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising individual information setting means of setting individual-specific IDs and information controlling means of controlling the output from the equilibrium state analyzing means corresponding to each ID, wherein the output from the equilibrium state analyzing means corresponding to each ID is provided as an index.

6. The equilibrium state analyzing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the equilibrium state analyzing means totalizes and outputs the stored acceleration information corresponding to the time from the start to end of the measurement of acceleration.

7. The equilibrium state analyzing apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising a display device of displaying the output data, wherein the motion information storing means stores the totalized acceleration and the measured date data and the equilibrium state analyzing means outputs the totalized acceleration corresponding to the date data stored in the motion information storing means to the displaying means over time.

8. The equilibrium state analyzing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the equilibrium state analyzing means ranks the totalized acceleration information.

9. The equilibrium state analyzing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acceleration information detecting means can detect accelerations generated in the x- and y-directions which cross each other at right angles within the horizontal plane, the equilibrium state analyzing means calculates and outputs displacement in the center of gravity of the human body by integrating the acceleration generated in the x-direction and the acceleration generated in the y-direction twice respectively.

10. The equilibrium state analyzing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the displacement (St) and the center of gravity fluctuation index (Gn) (n:

measuring count) are determined from the expression;

S_t=1/2×

t²×

(Ax²+Ay²)^1/2G_n=∫

₀^TS_tdt

where Axt is the acceleration in the x-direction, Ayt is the acceleration in the y-direction (t is a sampling timing, t=0, 1, 2 . . . P/I, P is a measuring time and I is a sampling interval), and the equilibrium state analyzing means outputs the calculated displacement and the center of gravity fluctuation index.

11. The equilibrium state analyzing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the equilibrium state analyzing means compares the calculated Gn with G1, G2, . . . Gn−

1 and outputs “

good”

when Gn<

Gn−

1 and outputs “

fair”

when Gn=Gn−

1 and outputs “

caution”

when Gn>

Gn−

1.

12. The equilibrium state analyzing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the equilibrium state analyzing means decides that the body is in a stationary standing position when the displacement is within a predetermined area from the position of the center of gravity of the human body and decides that the human body is falling or in a transition toward falling when the displacement is outside the predetermined area.

13. The equilibrium state analyzing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising standing position signal inputting means, connected to the equilibrium state analyzing means, of inputting a standing position signal, wherein the equilibrium state analyzing means starts an analysis of the equilibrium state when the standing position signal is input to the standing position signal inputting means.

15. A program for operating a computer as the motion information storing means of storing the detected acceleration and the equilibrium state analyzing means of analyzing the equilibrium state of the human body by integrating the stored acceleration information in the equilibrium state analyzing apparatus according to claim 1.

16. A recording medium which stores the program according to claim 15 and which can be processed by a computer.

14. An equilibrium state analysis method comprising, an acceleration information detecting step of detecting acceleration generated in at least one direction within the horizontal plane by acceleration information detecting means mounted in the trunk of the body, a motion information storing step of storing the detected acceleration and an equilibrium state analyzing step of analyzing the equilibrium state of the human body by integrating the stored acceleration information.